Them discern what is true and what is false about what they know about immigrants. Here at the conference, i am focused on the intersections of immigration history and Foreign Policy history. Unfortunately, they feel even though they are intersected, they have not engaged in a conversation with each other for some time and they should. One could argue immigrants are the poster children of Foreign Policy. This is a personal story for you. Maria it is. My family immigrated to the United States from cuba in the 1960s. I have always been interested in the experiences of immigrants and the refugees in particular. How often have you been back to cuba . Three or four times. My first trip was in 1991, during the socalled special period in cuba, and more recently, my most recent trip was three years ago. I led cornell alumnis back and got a sense of how it has changed in recent years. How has the country changed . You left as a young baby. What do you remember . Maria i do not remember anything about the early time. Americans have the wrong idea about cuba. They feel it is a land locked in time. How often have we heard americans say that we have to go back to cuba quickly before it changes . The reality is cuba has been changing dramatically over the past 50 years. Just because there are wonderful 1950s era automobiles in the streets, it does not mean the society has not been changing. Every time you visit cuba, you get a sense of how the society is changing. You get a sense of the aspirations and hopes and dreams of the cuban people. The hartceller act, what was that . Maria this year marks the 50th anniversary of the act, which was passed to remove the that hadorigin quota been in place since the national 1920. Origins had significantly reduced or eliminated altogether immigration from southern and eastern europe, from asia, and from other parts of the world. The americas were largely excluded from these because they needed labor from somewhere in the world. Exceptions were made for countries from the americas so that they would supply labor that we needed. What the hartceller act did is instead of putting individual limits on the countries, it set up other limits. It set up a quota of immigrants 120,000 coming from the eastern hemisphere, and for the first time, it imposed a limit on the western hemisphere of 120,000. Later on, about a decade later in the 1970s, the limits were abandoned in favor of an overall global ceiling of 290,000. The law has been amended many times since then and today, it is much much larger. Have been unintended consequences . Maria yes. That is what the history tells us. There were two unintended consequences in particular, one having to do with the countries and the other one having to do with numbers. For much of American History, the immigration has largely come from europe and africa. As a result of hartceller, we have seen a demographic shift. After 1965, over 70 of our immigrants have come from the americas, asia, and other place in the developing world. That is one unintended consequence. The second one has to do with overall numbers. As i mentioned before, we have a global ceiling. At present, in 2015, the global ceiling is 675,000. The law also prioritized for admission family members of american citizens and permanent residents. It also prioritized people with particular job skills. If you fit into one of those categories, you could potentially immigrate in the United States outside of the global ceiling. The actual number of people who have come in is always much higher than the global ceiling. Let me give you an example. In 2015, the global ceiling with 675,000, but we also admitted an additional 480,000 under a family reunification visa. We admit a minimum of 140,000 employmentbased visas. We admit 55,000 diversity visas. Then we bring in 70,000 refugees under a separate track in the immigration. Hartceller, the actual number of people who left come in each year have really hovered in the one million mark in terms of authorized migrations. Then we have an unknown amount that come in without authorization, but we do not know what the actual numbers are. Some say it is 11 million and other say much higher. If you follow debates today over immigration and illegal immigrants, what are your thoughts . Maria first, i should say people have been migrating back and forth from their countries of origin to the United States. What happened with hartceller is for the first time he put a limit on people from the americas. That means is this migration that had existed since the early 19th century were people were moving back and forth across the usmexico border or common across United States, actually recruiting for the American Labor market, suddenly after 1965, that migration becomes limited. But the patterns of migration continue to exist. The people continue to migrate. Suddenly those people find they are labeled unauthorized. Prior to 1965, they were just part of the natural order of things. They had been migrating freely for generations. Individuals coming from mexico without authorization, their migrating to an area of the United States that was once part of their country. Over half of our country was once half of mexico. Their ancestors had been migrating to United States for generations. Suddenly, the labeling of this migration as unauthorized, it was a fairly recent phenomenon. You give a name to it and that is what makes it unauthorized. Why did they come to United States . What are they looking for . Maria a wide range of reasons. Let me talk about migration from the american the americas in general. People from the americas have been coming to the United States since the 19th century, and primarily from mexico, cuba, and puerto rico. Puerto rico is an interesting case study because after 1917, when Congress Passed the smithjones act, they become citizens. They are the one group from the americas that are not immigrants, technically. They are u. S. Citizens. They are traveling from one u. S. Territory to the continental United States. Since the early 19th century, we have seen significant migration from mexico, cuba, and puerto rico. There are other migrations from the americas that are a more recent phenomenon, the products of empire, of military, and form policy intervention. Foreign policy intervention. The Dominican Republic today is one of the major source countries of authorized and unauthorized migration. They had very little migration to the United States prior to 1961. The dictatorship of trujillo would not allow it. After 1961, a civil war breaks out in the Dominican Republic. The United States uses migration as a way to politically and economically stabilize the Dominican Republic. The United States actively encourages migration out of the country as a way of encouraging stabilization. That set into motion a pattern that continues into the present day. Today, over 20 of dominicans live outside of their country of origin. The states and puerto rico. Can you take it one step further and talk about the waves of migration over the years . Not only the last 50 years, but the last 200 years, what we have seen and when in this country . Maria do you have a couple of hours . [laughter] it is fascinating history. It is fascinating history. In the 19th century, the migration was primarily european and african. Most of the migration that was african is in slave labor. That experience is central to the history of the United States and our economic and political formation as well. It is a different kind of immigrant experience. It is a forced migration. During most of the 19th century, the migration from europe is coming from northern and western europe. Around the 1880s, that begins to shift. We see most of the migration coming from europe is coming from southern and eastern europe. You also begin to see a largescale migration from certain asian countries, particularly china and japan but also in the philippines. Chinese migration is the first to be restricted by congress. Congress passes the chinese exclusion act, First Time Congress deliberately prevents a particular group from emigrating to the United States. It is not until 1943 that the chinese are allowed to immigrate again. China is given a tiny quota of 100 immigration slots which is , insignificant, i think you will agree. It is really not until the 1960 that we begin to see the number of chinese who come to the u. S. Whether or not the u. S. Can learn from other countries or whether other countries learn from the u. S. About what we do with immigration, how would you respond . How would you respond . Maria i think we tend to view the American Experience as exceptional. But i think we see echoes of the American Experience and american policy in other parts of the world. I think now, there is greater discussion between nations on issues of immigration policy. I know certainly for the americas, every couple of years, representatives from the United States in various countries in the americas gather to discuss a wide range of issues and migration is one of them. Migration is a reality in todays world. If you have been following recent reports this past week from the united nations, the number of people who are refugees and displaced and forced across international borders, an alltime high. You taught at texas a m and cornell university. If we were in your classroom right now, what kinds of questions are you asking and what answers are you looking for in regards to immigration . Maria a great question. Students take my classes for a wide range of reasons. Some of them are children of immigrants and they want to understand the Family Experience and put it in larger context to see how their experience compares to those who came before them. That is one set of motivation. Others approach it from a policy standpoint. They are interested in legislative responses, the history of the presidency, and they want to understand how it has changed and what is the appropriate course of action. I think we are in agreement that we are at a moment in our history where we are reconsidering our immigration policy and we are not in agreement about what that should look like. I think there is a curiosity about that in trying to come up with an appropriate answer. That is another motivation for taking the class. Others approach it from a purely the economists who take my classes want to understand the Economic Impact that immigrants have in the u. S. And their countries of origin in terms of remittance. You talk about the debate in this country, dealing with it now for 10 or 15 years. George w. Bush tried to put an immigration plan on the table and it failed because republicans in the house and senate did not approve it. It will now be part of the debate in 2016. Is this unique . Did we have these types of debates previously . Maria oh, all the time. You have to look at the debate cellar and you can see it has always been a sensitive issue. I think 9 11 has been the real game changer. Since 9 11, immigration has been contribute into a larger discussion about National Security. Immigration is now a National Security issue. Whether it should be, i think that is a subject to debate. But i think discussions about immigration and Immigration Reform have become all the more important in light of 9 11. Lawmakers, as they begin this next debate . Maria Immigration Reform has many different pieces. In the public medium, most of the discussions have focused on whether to give a path to citizenship without authorization. That is certainly a very important piece of the puzzle but there are many other pieces of the puzzle that need to be discussed. Our humanitarian responses to refugees. It is another piece of the puzzle we need to discuss and that has not received enough attention. Should we continue to favor family reunification or should we put more emphasis on job skills, on bringing in people to the nine states have skills that are necessary to our u. S. Economy . That is another set of issues we need to discuss. But you know, i think by focusing on just one easy of the puzzle, albeit a very important piece, i think we ignore that there are other issues we also need to discuss. These are immigrants who come to all parts of the country. To north dakota and iowa and other states around the country. Maria right. And they are actively recruited. So yes, they come because they will find jobs. If there were not any jobs and americas were not offering them jobs, immigrants would not come with or without authorization. Why is this your passion . Maria because it is the american story. When i went to graduate school, it was to study colonial history. I realized i could be of more service by focusing on those histories that had been left out of the american narrative. We know so little about immigrants, about people of color, about the experiences of women, about the experience of gays and lesbians. There are so many communities central to the nice states. Whose stories have not been fully told. I want them to be part of a community of scholars who tells that story. In order to tell the story you have to do the research. ,where do you go . What do you look at . Maria i have worked in a wide range of sources. The president ial archives, i looked at the legislative record, popular media, oral histories. I consulted with as many as possible. To try to get as holistic an interpretation as possible. Thank you for your time. Maria cristina garcia. Thank you. Youre watching American History tv all weekend every weekend on cspan three. To join the conversation, like us on facebook. Campusrary of congress of audiovisual confirmation provides access to the librarys best access of Radio Broadcasts and sound recordings. American history tv visited to learn about the earliest Public Affairs films, including the spanishamerican war, world war i, and the first clinical ad created in 1912. This is the earliest videotaping or collection. Videotape in our collection. Was from wrc, an nbc operated station in washington d c it was attended by president eisenhower. During the ceremony, they flip the switch. The cameras you see before you are color cameras. They are now transmitting a black and white picture. By pressing this button, which i now do, the cameras are transmitting color pictures. He tells president eisenhower we are making two copies on a new type of videotape, mr. President. I have a strip of this new tape. I have asked our engineers to make to take copies of this program. One will be sent to the white house for your personal attention. The other will be presented to the library of congress so that its archives made permanently possess a record in color of this significant occasion. I think all of us realize in these fastmoving times it is highly important that our Nations Capital should be attached to every single citizen in this country by the very fastest, best kind of communication. And ofons of the nation the government, that at one time could tolerate three or four a week of study, now demand almost instantaneous reactions. That is the copy we have here. Our engineers did a new transfer of, amazingly enough, 55 years later, we are still able to copy this videotape. There is tremendous material out there to make any of it. There are a lot of stories that can be told in our collection and we are so eager to make more of it available for people to discover and enjoy and tell us more about what we have. History bookshelf airs every weekend at this time. James pearson examines the changes in liberalism after the assassination of john f. Kennedy. The American Enterprise institute hosted this event in 2007. It is just under 90 minutes. Welcome for the book forum. Normally we are a policy organization, focused on Public Policy but occasll